The Godown Arts Centre

27/01/2026

It’s been 3 years since The Godown’s well received BAKUL: Everyday Baskets exhibition, which was inspired by author-architect Jennifer Linggi’s iconic tome The Kampung Legacy: A Journal of North Borneo’s Traditional Baskets and showcased her extensive collection of Sabahan baskets. Curated by architects Ling Hao and Tey Khang Siang, with Jennifer herself as the project advisor, this exhibition was over 9 months in the making including a team trip to KK and Kampung Bakuku in June 2022, and ran from January to February 2023. Here’s a look back at the exhibition captured by our frequent collaborator Gerai OA which perfectly documents key aspects of the exhibition and BTS details.

The "Bakul: Everyday baskets from Sabah" exhibition is currently on-going at the Godown Arts Centre until 23/2. It's not just a display of vernacular basketry from Sabah, but a labour of love by the collector (Jennifer P. Linggi) and the gallery team.

On the surface it may merely look like baskets defying gravity, but there's actually more to it. And there's also a lot of information available - if you know where to look.

This is our walkabout through the exhibition on two days, on 7/1 when the exhibition first opened and again on 12/1, when the exhibition was officiated.

We've highlighted some of the subtle ways information can be gleaned by the casual visitor, or a more studious approach for designers and those who appreciate craft.

And it's a great way to view many forms of everyday basketry which are unfortunately no longer being crafted in Sabah either because of the loss of forests or artisans, or because they are no longer utilised.

We hope you'll enjoy this walkabout, as we did.

27/01/2026

15/12/2025

We are excited to announce that our FINAL series of open studios for the AiR Artist Residency programme will be held on 21 December. Our resident architects and artists –Yen Shan Ting, Jian Lin Wong, Minstrel Kuik, and Zelin Seah – have been working on a range of ongoing projects.

Yen Shan’s research on KL’s waterways seeks to understand the relationships between water and the development of a city around it. By walking, drawing, and mapping the city’s major rivers and smaller rivulets, her work sheds light on the human and nonhuman ecologies which both structure and are shaped by urban water courses.

Jian Lin has been carrying out a study of the main hall’s timber floor. Since learning about the accumulation of its markings through its caretakers, she has been interested in how a floor might act as a repository for contingent movements and modest histories. A series of drawing exercises which both represent and intervene upon these traces explore possible ways of perceiving, describing, and interacting with everyday surfaces.

Minstrel is currently experimenting with the potentials of scavenged debris from nearby
building sites. Interested in how a city might be revisited materially, discarded bricks and
mosaic tiles are assembled and disassembled to recall temporalities of use, value, and development. These studies will be shown next to “Kuala Lumpur Trilogy,” a series of three photobooks completed between 2007-2017, which document the artist’s encounters with the city after a decade abroad.

Zelin will be showing material from the early stages of his residency alongside ongoing work from his wider practice. Across his projects, Zelin has been interested in the modalities in which nature can be observed and expressed within (and despite) impositions of the rigid and formal. His research here is centred on how plants adapt themselves to existing structures; as well as the properties and potentials of lime, a building material historically valued for its ability breathe, evolve, and repair itself over time.

The artist’s studios will be open for visits on Sunday, December 21 between 12-7pm. We look forward to seeing you!

25/11/2025

25/11/2025

Useful Fictions
Ang Kia Yee

Live Reading
30 November
5pm to 6pm
The Godown Arts Centre, Air Pavilion 2nd Floor

Works on Display
3 to 8 December
11am to 6pm every day
The Godown Arts Centre, Main Hall

We are excited to announce a live reading and display of Useful Fictions, a suite of speculative fictions by Ang Kia Yee, written during her residency at The Godown.

Taking the two annexes that comprise the arts centre as a departure point, the texts speculate upon alternative purposes that such spaces may be used for. Through this exercise, Kia Yee renders realities that blend past, present, and future elements of Kuala Lumpur and global supersystems. She sees such speculations as forms of research into the state of our imaginations, which themselves suggest playing fields and limits to what we may materially realize in addressing the polycrises of the world. The suite is accompanied by three rolls of handwritten texts which the artist wrote as a continuous meditative practice during her time at the residency.

At 5pm on 30 November, Kia Yee will be performing Useful Fictions as a live reading blending projection and sound. Her work will be accompanied by tracks from Doing Nothing, an EP by sound artist Syafiq Halid. The reading will last for approximately 45 minutes, followed by a short Q&A session. No registration required, walk-ins welcome.

Useful Fictions will also be on display at The Godown between 3-8 December, from 11am-6pm. Visitors will be able to experience the texts through an intimate reading room within the Main Hall, amidst a soundscape of recordings from the live reading.

Ang Kia Yee is a transdisciplinary artist and writer who works primarily with text and performance. She practices speculative fictioning as a way of offering variations of what is possible in life and in the world. She was a resident artist for the 2024 Residency at the Intercultural Theatre Institute; a participating artist for Natasha, Singapore Biennale 2022; and a resident writer for Centre 42’s New Scripts Residency 2021.

19/11/2025

🗓️ Sunday 23 November 2025
🌱 Open Studios
⏱️ 12-7pm
🌸 The Godown Arts Centre

This Sunday, our artists-in-residence – Ang Kia Yee, Amanda Gayle, and Tak Jadi Ikut Kelawar, a collective formed by Lau Beh Chin, Ridhwan Saidi, Chua Li Cheng, and Farahin Fadzlishah - will be
sharing their ongoing projects at The Godown.

It has been an exciting past month, with the artists taking to a diverse set of explorations
through mediums including writing, movement, and visual art. Alongside the daily exercise
of writing three distinct narratives, each upon a continuous roll of paper, Kia Yee has been
working on a series of speculative fictions interweaving the immediate spaces around her
with evocations of the uncanny located within the rest of the city. Meanwhile, Amanda’s
observations have led her towards an assemblage of interventions emerging from the visual,
material, and figurative possibilities of drawing a likeness between columns and trees.

Initially drawn to the relationships between the fig trees, fruits, and bats on site, Tak Jadi Ikut Kelawar’s explorations have expanded in varying directions which continue to be linked by
the act of reflecting on the experience of the body in space.

In speaking about their project,
titled “Tak Jadi Ikut Kelawar,” Beh Chin shares:

“I found myself drawn to the leaves;
Li Cheng to the human behaviour of suffering;
Ridhwan to retelling experiences;
and Farah to documenting the traces we created around the space.”

The artist’s studios will be open for visits between 12-7pm. We look forward to seeing you
this Sunday!

02/11/2025

Some scenes from the recent activities by resident artists:
1) Open studio and “musyawarah sayur” by artist whose residency practice here was to delve into vegetables and wet markets as a pathway to understanding the people who live in the city, the way they make a living and who controls the decisions that are made.
2) Casual sharing by - musings on her practice, art college, residencies and childhood.

Thanks to everyone who attended, listened, vibed. We truly felt your lovely supportive energy!

02/11/2025

Our recent Pakistani cooking class with Chef Hamid organised by .my and was a fun experience and also, mini reunion for long lost collaborators. Conversation flowed effortlessly between new and old friends as the beautiful scent of spices permeated the air. There were around ten of us at the table, slightly cramped but more than made up for by the korma (delicious!), culture exchange and camaraderie ! Thanks to everyone who attended, and Chef Hamid and the orgamisers for a great evenjng!

18/10/2025

The Godown are delighted to support the upcoming chamber concert with a special arrangement of music from the Final Fantasy VII universe :

𝗢𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗶𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗺: 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗙𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘀𝘆 𝗩𝗜𝗜 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗿𝘁
Presented by EnkeEnyo Music and Zephyr Flute ensemble:

Ensemble
Violin I - Nisa Addina
Violin 2 - Wei Chen
Viola - Justin Lai
Cello - Eugene
Flute - Sylvie Wong Xiu En
Alto Flute - Ho Chee Kiang Clarinet - Seth Sinnadurai
Bassoon - Chong Chun Weng
Piano - Qayyum Bin Zainal

Arranged By
Sylvie Wong Xiu En
Qayyum Bin Zainal

𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗿𝘁 𝗗𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘀:-
📅 𝑫𝒂𝒕𝒆: 21 November 2025 (Friday)
📍 𝑳𝒐𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏:
⏰️ 𝑻𝒊𝒎𝒆: 8 PM
🎫 𝑻𝒊𝒄𝒌𝒆𝒕: RM 100

Limited seats available!
Get your tickets now at linktr.ee/enkeenyo

18/10/2025

Repost Artist in-residence (Aug/Sep 2025)

Vegetable Archive
(2025-ongoing)

Vegetables are my entry point to understand how socio-economic and political infrastructure of a city operates. Vegetables can reveal the layers and complex relationships within the production of economic value, social dynamics, and even the cultural knowledge stored in the kitchen.

Vegetables as an archive, a living archive, that continuously grows alongside knowledge circulating around it. The idea of vegetables as an archive emerged when I read a book—In 1963-1964, a book titled “Mensukseskan TAVIP dengan Revolusi Menu” (Menu Revolution) was published by the Indonesian Women’s Congress (KOWANI). This book has generally been overlooked in Indonesian historiography, as it was seen as being only about food and recipes. However, the book’s contents included high-protein plant-based recipes, promoting food sovereignty, and supporting Sukarno’s political campaign of Dwi Komando Rakyat (Two Command of the People’s). The book was published as part of Dwikora, Sukarno’s political agenda to launch a political and military attack on Malaysia.

My main question in this research: how we can intervene “the past” through everyday conversations happening now?

During one month in Kuala Lumpur, I learned a lot from the vegetable sellers at Pasar Chow Kit, Pasar Pudu, and Pasar Selayang. Many of my new friends in the markets are (undocumented) migrant workers from Indonesia, primarily from West Java and East Java—working as vegetable truck drivers, traders, porters, and distributors moving vegetables from one market to another across Kuala Lumpur. Listening to, documenting, and learning from their memories and day-to-day struggles are the most crucial parts of this artistic research.

16/10/2025

The Godown are delighted to present an exhibition Space within Space, of a new series of works by resident artist Charuwan Noprumpha , completed during her residency at The Godown.

The drawings and photographs in Space within Space explore the layered nature of place through elements such as light, form, movement, and time. Over the past month, Charuwan has been interested in how quiet observation, small shifts, and moments of decay or growth can become tools for reading and reinterpreting space. Her work questions the boundaries between perception and reality, seeking to uncover the lives of “inanimate” material through personal encounters.

As the artist notes:
Places can be full of stories,
accumulate traces of time,
record changes,
the used, scuffed, broken,
amended, altered;
and kept going round in circles.

Space within Space will be on display between 24 October to 4 November (closed Monday 27 October). Charuwan will also host an Open Studio and Artist Walkthrough sessions on Saturday 25 October. Entry is free by registration via the link in our bio.

Charuwan Noprumpha

Space within Space
24 October to 4 November, 11am to 6pm (closed Monday 27 October)

Open Studio
25 October, 11am - 7pm

Artist Walkthrough
25 October, 3pm and 5pm

About the artist:
Charuwan is a Bangkok-based visual artist with a master’s degree in Fine Art from EESAB (European Higher School of Fine Art) in Quimper, France. Over the past 12 years, she has participated in solo and group exhibitions in Belgium, France, Germany, Malaysia, and Thailand. In 2015, Charuwan was invited to join La Biennale of Young Contemporary Creation in Mulhouse, France from which she became a recipient of an award from the French Cultural Center, Freiburg, She has taken part in various artist residencies including Les ateliers du Plessix-Madeuc in Dinan, France, Rimbun Dahan and Georgetown Festival in Malaysia.